Sunday, October 04, 2009

Did you ever wonder?

About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason. Up to the late 1700s, everybody traveled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right handed people. jousting Knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him. Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon. The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed; his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. From then on, any part colonized by the French was right hand. In America, the French colonized the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec also the Martismens -formerly known as Arcadia). The Dutch colonized New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portuguese colonies the southern Americas. So the British were a minority in shaping the "traffic". USA adopted the drive-on-the-right policy, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past. Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed. If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American; for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars. From then on many countries changed out of necessity.

2 comments:

Betty said...

Thanks for the info. I've always wondered why some people drive on the left.

Galla Creek said...

What a you know...I did not know that.